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Showing posts from March, 2015

Tips for Mentoring a Student Teacher - Planning the Lessons

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Did you like part 4 of this series about communicating?  If you missed it, you can click on the picture above to see all the posts in this series! Today, I'm going to share some tips with you about planning.  Keep reading to see what I have to say! I feel like I tell you how important each stage is every time I write a post.  But, if you don't take the time to plan with your student teacher in the beginning of the placement, you will spend more time trying to catch up later. So... shortly after your student teacher starts with you, you need to start planning together.  This means spending time planning while sitting with your student teacher. In the beginning, you will do all the planning.  You will explain your thought process.  Now is a good time to give your student teacher copies of the curriculum if that hasn't been done already.  Your student teacher needs to see the how of planning. After a few weeks, you can start to turn some of

Tips for Mentoring a Student Teacher - Communicating

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I hope you found my third set of tips useful! You can click on the picture above to see all the posts in this series. Communication is very important when working with your student teacher. As soon as your student teacher takes on responsibilities, it is important to communicate with him/her.  You need to make sure your expectations are clear. Here are a few simple guidelines to remember: 1.  If a problem comes up, discuss it IMMEDIATELY!  Don't wait.  It won't resolve itself on its own.  Even if you think it will just go away.  It won't.  So talk about something when it is a little problem so you don't have to deal with it as a big problem. 2.  Make sure to give verbal and written feedback after lessons. 3.  Ask your student teacher how he/she thinks things went.  Get their opinion before giving yours.  This encourages reflection. To go along with these blog posts, I have created a guide . This guide will be for sale in my Tp